Polish PM pledges memorial to victims of WW2 'genocide by Ukrainian nationalists' - BBC News

Warsaw and Kyiv have for decades been at loggerheads over the killings of many thousands of civilians during World War Two.

Image source, EPA/ShutterstockImage caption, A commemorative ceremony was held on Saturday in Poland's capital Warsaw and other cities across the country

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has announced the creation of a national memorial to the victims of a "genocide committed by Ukrainian nationalists" during World War Two.

Tusk was speaking on the anniversary of what Poland calls the "massacre" in Volhynia - a Polish territory in German-occupied Poland now part of Ukraine and known as Volyn - in which it says some 100,000 ethnic Poles were killed by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) in 1943-45.

Many in Ukraine see the UPA as heroes who fought for independence from the Soviet Union as well as against Nazi Germany and Polish authorities.

Warsaw and Kyiv have for decades been at odds over the events, in which about 10,000 Ukrainian civilians are also estimated to have been killed.